The Drums Of War Is Beating In The Middle East
By Salim Nazzal
28 May, 2010
Much analysis has been lately written in the Arab media about the assumed war between Arabs and Israel. Political analysts seek to conclude something of this talk about war, the optimists of them assume that the more noise about war the less it likely to happen. While the pessimists think it has become inevitable basing their view on the absence of any hope for political compromise. The retired generals interviewed on Arab TVs began to anticipate how and where the spark of the war will begin. And whether the war would be on one front or more, and how long it will last and what would be its political results.
Israel has sent twofold messages, threatened all, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Syria, and the same time sent signals to Syria and Lebanon that it has no intention to start a war.
In the mean time Israel resumed its military exercises guided by the assumption that most or all of the state of Israel might be under fire. Other parties expressed its concern and made it clear that the war would not be an easy trip. Iran repeated several times that it would strongly retaliate if it is attacked, and Syria foreign minister said the war will reach the Israeli cities if Israel attacks Syria. Hamas spokesman said Hamas is ready to face any attempt from Israel to attack Gaza.
While the Lebanese resistance voice was perhaps the strongest. It vowed to destroy the Israeli divisions that might try to attack Lebanon, and its leader introduced a new war equation, if Israel bombs Beirut, the resistance bomb tells Aviv, if Israel bomb Beirut airport, the resistance bombs tell Aviv airport.
However, if we sum up the Arab Israeli wars we will easily observe the sharp contradiction between the repeated Israeli talk about peace and the fact that Israel has almost initiated all wars.
Past history is the clearest evidence of the fact that Israel began Nine wars out of Ten wars.
1948. Joint Russian Polish Zionist Jewish Zionists smuggled to Palestine by the help of Britain and by illegal ways wiped out Palestine and established a Russian polish state for Jews under the name Israel. More than 30 massacres were committed by Zionists, and two third of native Palestinians were driven out from their home. The mass murder at Deir Yasin has become the symbol of the Zionist brutality of that war.
1956. The state of Israel attacked Egypt. The Israeli forces committed mass murder in Khan Younis in the Gaza strip.
1967 Israel attacked Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Israel used the forbidden Napalm bombs against civilians in Jordan, and occupied Sinai, the West Bank and Golan heights until now.
1973. Egyptian and Syrian armies took the initiative to liberate their land.
1978. Israel invaded south Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese villagers were killed by the attacking forces.
1982. Israel invaded Lebanon killing about 20,000 Palestinians and Lebanese. Israel sponsored militia committed the horrific massacres of Sabra and Shatila camps, over 3000 Palestinian civilians were murdered.
2004. Israel attacked the west bank; the Israeli forces committed the Ginen camp massacre and denied the entry to the Un commission appointed to investigate the massacre.
1996. Israel attacked Lebanon. The village of Qana which Jesus and his mother visited to attend a happy wedding one day, was the theatre of horrible massacres which killed many civilians took refuge at the united nation post. The Israeli military planes made Qana a large funeral.
2006 .Israel attacked Lebanon killing 1200 civilians .Israel used cluster bombs which are internationally forbidden. Israel committed another mass murder at the village of Qana. In Qana Jesus converted water into wine. In Qana the blood of the civilians after the Israeli massacre was spreading all over the village.
2008-2009 .Israel attacked Gaza at the Christmas eve. The mass murder committed shocked the whole world, the UN investigation committee led by judge Goldstone found Israel guilty of committing crimes against humanity.
What can be concluded out of these wars?
The first conclusion is that the establishment of the state of Israel is the reason of all these wars. The theory that a group of people establish their salvation on the ruins of other people has proven beyond doubt that it is not only immoral but unworkable. The last war in Palestine was about 800 years ago during the crusaders wars. The crusaders project in Palestine failed due to the resistance and due to the fact there is no way to govern Palestine with a racist ideology which excludes the rest of population.
Europeans who stayed in Palestine after the failure of the racist crusaders project were integrated in the Palestinian society and became part of its social fabric. And today we see that the Zionist state is more or less a ghetto in the region with zero social and cultural contact with the region which is a clear result of the failure of the Zionist project.
The second conclusion is that Israel has started almost all these wars which is clear evidence of the aggressive nature of the Zionism which puts Arabs and Jews into an opened conflict.
The third conclusion is that in each war Israel commits huge violation of human rights, either through ethnic cleansing, or, through committing murder against non combatants.
The fourth conclusion is that Israel has shown no respect to international laws regarding using forbidden arms and disrespecting UN resolutions.
The fifth conclusion is that Israel failed to kill the spirit of the Palestinian people dream to live free and in peace in their ancestral country.
The sixth conclusion is that the Palestinian question reveals undoubtedly the lack of will of the international society to force Israel to honor the international resolutions. The Us policy which puts the Israeli interest before the American interest and before the international laws, is considered the prime reason behind the paralyzing of the Un in the question of Palestine.
The seventh conclusion that wars lead to more wars and it has become obvious that as long as Israel denies Palestinians their natural and historical and national rights it is doubtful that the region will witness any stability in foreseeable future.
let’s assume that the war broke out, what would be its results?
The first result will be the death of thousands of innocent people in addition to the huge destruction which will occur in the region. Many observers believe that in the age of ballistic rockets it is not easy to define the term victory and defeat. But what is sure is that the great winner would be the graveyards and the increasing of militarism and fanatism and the consolidation of the vengeance sentiments and the spread of the mass destruction which will lead to more horrible wars.
The second result is if Israel attacks Iran it would be the first war between Israel and a non Arab state. This might change the nature of the war towards a religious confrontation between Muslims and Jews.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to tell whether the war will occur or not, What is sure is the fact that the continuation of the Zionist occupation is a daily war against Palestine and against the civilized norms and the international laws. This occupation is the prime reason for past wars and the wars which might occur. If this issue is not addressed seriously within the frame work of the UN resolutions and in a strong international intervention it is extremely difficult to anticipate that the region is coming to witness peace in the near future.
Dr. Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian-Norwegian historian in the Middle East, who has written extensively on social and political issues in the region.